Missouri Supreme Court rejects challenge of House districts

JEFFERSON CITY — The Missouri Supreme Court on Thursday turned down a petition challenging the Missouri House redistricting plan crafted by a panel of appeals court judges.

The decision directed the bipartisan group that filed the petition to file a lawsuit at the circuit court level if it wants to continue the case. And if such a lawsuit is filed, the high court directed that it be heard quickly “to ensure a prompt decision in this election case.”

The court acted the day after the Attorney General’s Office filed a response to the challenge from Columbia attorney Paul Wilson on behalf of a group that includes two current and two former lawmakers. Wilson on Tuesday filed the petition seeking to overturn the plan that divides Missouri into 163 House districts.

The plan was filed Nov. 30 by the Appellate Apportionment Commission, a group of six appeals court judges who take over the task of redistricting the General Assembly if bipartisan commissions fail to agree.

In his response to Wilson, Solicitor General James Layton wrote that just because it is possible to more equally divide Missouri’s population among state House districts doesn’t mean the apportionment plan isn’t good enough. Exactly equal districts have never been required and any plan can theoretically be made more equal, he wrote.

If the challenge is accepted, “whatever plan replaced it would also be invalid, unless the districts it sets out are precisely equal in population,” Layton wrote. “But that has never been, and should not be, the constitutional test.”

Wilson declined comment this morning on Layton’s filing, but he did respond formally to the court. He argued that the test for population equality is not whether any possible map could have a more even split, but whether the districts submitted by the Appellate Apportionment Commission meet constitutional tests.

No one “knows whether the next map drawn by the bipartisan reapportionment commission will have districts that are as nearly equal in population ‘as possible’ as the Constitution requires. But, what everyone does know is that the New House Map does not even try,” Wilson wrote.

The appellate commission plan has districts that are as much as 3.92 percent less and as much as 3.89 percent more than the ideal of 36,742 people. Federal courts have accepted plans with a range of as much as 10 percent, Layton noted.

Wilson also is challenging the plan because three districts are split by major rivers and have no direct road connection between the two sections. One district cited is the 50th District, which includes portions of Boone, Cole, Cooper and Moniteau counties and is divided by the Missouri River.

The method of travel through a district should not be a test of whether it is contiguous, Layton argued.

“Is there a constitutional difference between a river or lake that can only be crossed by canoe or other watercraft, and one that can be crossed with a mighty leap?” Layton wrote.

The court has not set the case for oral arguments. It could rule without a hearing.

The court already has thrown out the Senate plan from the Appellate Apportionment Commission. The process of drawing Senate districts will begin this weekend, when both the Republican and Democratic parties intend to nominate new members for the panel that will attempt to draw the districts. Gov. Jay Nixon will select the commission from the party-submitted lists.

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